PETER SAMUELSON (BRITISH 1912-1996)
PETER SAMUELSON (BRITISH 1912-1996)
⊕
SKETCHES OF ORCHESTRA PLAYING, MUSIC CONDUCTORS, MUSICIANS
eleven sketches representing orchestras, conductors and performers that include Reginald Jacques, Kubelek, Francis Oakes, Ernest Goss, Maude Tortellier, Marie Rambert and the artist's manifesto on the exhibition
some coloured pencils, black and red chalks, blue biro, watercolour
various sizes (24 x 31cm largest)
(14)
offered together with a paper folder made by the artist which contained all the sketches for his musical fantasies, titled 40 / Music / Fantasies / & catalogue / for probable Exhibition / plus figures on movement /after nature / & musicians at music / after nature / should also be / some of the printed stuff / from the / press cutting book / + musicians / and the article about them / PIERRE '86 on the front
Property from a Collector, Kent
Provenance
Acquired from the artist by the present owner circa 2015
From a wealthy, Jewish background, Samuelson went to Eton but disliked it so much that he left at 15. Instead he spent several seasons in the south of France, where he joined Diaghilev's Ballet Russe in Monte Carlo. This is where he learnt to sketch, capturing dancers in motion. A natural draftsman, self educated and a linguist (he spoke Dutch, German and French), he went on to train at the New York School of Fine Art in Paris before moving to Holland where he worked as an illustrator for the Dutch Radio Times at Hilversum in the 1940s. 'Music Fantasies' are works done in response to individual pieces of music which he heard in rehearsal while drawing some of the most distinguished musicians from the Dutch Radio Orchestra. A special posthumous exhibition Still life and Fantasy curated by Julian Machin took place at Eton College's Brewhouse Gallery in a memorial show in 1996 where some of these works featured. They show his highly individualistic style and imagination, including mirror-writing and his pseudonym signature 'Pierre'.
He had a lifelong love of music and dance, and his 'Music Fantasies' are typically executed with pent-up energy, often playful and erotic, trying to capture the music played at speed during recordings. Some of his earlier works from the 1940s included colour but soon abandoned for more 'immediacy of line'. He writes '[...] results became starker, more crazy into the 60s when all expression was overtaken by the repair of antique Eastern rugs'. Leighton House put on an exhibition of his work together with his collection of Turkish rugs, which he had learnt to restore. In these groups of drawings, each differ and respond to certain concertos and composers, occasionally punctuated with humorous comments (for example, 'Haffner Serenade, very inadequate').
PETER SAMUELSON (BRITISH 1912-1996)
⊕
SKETCHES OF ORCHESTRA PLAYING, MUSIC CONDUCTORS, MUSICIANS
eleven sketches representing orchestras, conductors and performers that include Reginald Jacques, Kubelek, Francis Oakes, Ernest Goss, Maude Tortellier, Marie Rambert and the artist's manifesto on the exhibition
some coloured pencils, black and red chalks, blue biro, watercolour
various sizes (24 x 31cm largest)
(14)
offered together with a paper folder made by the artist which contained all the sketches for his musical fantasies, titled 40 / Music / Fantasies / & catalogue / for probable Exhibition / plus figures on movement /after nature / & musicians at music / after nature / should also be / some of the printed stuff / from the / press cutting book / + musicians / and the article about them / PIERRE '86 on the front
Property from a Collector, Kent
Provenance
Acquired from the artist by the present owner circa 2015
From a wealthy, Jewish background, Samuelson went to Eton but disliked it so much that he left at 15. Instead he spent several seasons in the south of France, where he joined Diaghilev's Ballet Russe in Monte Carlo. This is where he learnt to sketch, capturing dancers in motion. A natural draftsman, self educated and a linguist (he spoke Dutch, German and French), he went on to train at the New York School of Fine Art in Paris before moving to Holland where he worked as an illustrator for the Dutch Radio Times at Hilversum in the 1940s. 'Music Fantasies' are works done in response to individual pieces of music which he heard in rehearsal while drawing some of the most distinguished musicians from the Dutch Radio Orchestra. A special posthumous exhibition Still life and Fantasy curated by Julian Machin took place at Eton College's Brewhouse Gallery in a memorial show in 1996 where some of these works featured. They show his highly individualistic style and imagination, including mirror-writing and his pseudonym signature 'Pierre'.
He had a lifelong love of music and dance, and his 'Music Fantasies' are typically executed with pent-up energy, often playful and erotic, trying to capture the music played at speed during recordings. Some of his earlier works from the 1940s included colour but soon abandoned for more 'immediacy of line'. He writes '[...] results became starker, more crazy into the 60s when all expression was overtaken by the repair of antique Eastern rugs'. Leighton House put on an exhibition of his work together with his collection of Turkish rugs, which he had learnt to restore. In these groups of drawings, each differ and respond to certain concertos and composers, occasionally punctuated with humorous comments (for example, 'Haffner Serenade, very inadequate').
